Welcome to another Evil von Scary horror film review. On recommendation from Kount Kreepy I watched “The Babadook” an Australian horror film set in the modern day and described as a psychological horror. The scene is a single mother and her strange little boy are eking out a living in modern day Australia. The boy has a penchant for magic and monsters but his seemingly harmless obsession takes a turn when a mysterious book is found in their home.
The book appears to be a children’s story about a creature called The Babadook. The story however get increasingly scary and weird and the reading of the book seems to have awoken a supernatural creature. If you want a fresh film with a psychological scare similar to The Shining then this film is for you. Not over the top but visually dark with a creeping and pervasively oppressive atmosphere.
The Babadook has something for many horror fans and a good creep for those who are new to horror films. In a giant market of forgettable films The Babadook is one that will stick with the viewer for awhile afterword pondering various points of the movie.
*****Potential Spoilers***********
One does wonder if the mother (played by Essie Davis) is actually going out of her mind due to her troubled child rather than the subtle manipulation of the supernatural Babadook. The film is pretty good without relying on cheap scares like we’ve come to expect from many main stream horror films. The film work is reminiscent of other films such as The Omen. Written and directed by Jennifer Kent, I found the film to have realistic characters who had depth and found them believable. There was a an interesting contrast between the protagonists being stuck in there own horror and that of the “outside world” with it’s own sense of oppression and potential dangers.
Although making my personal list of must see horror I wish that there was a bit of a bigger budget in the film (especially for Foley artists vs canned effects boards!) but for what it had it did a fantastic job. There were also a few points in the film that hinted a greater things and a higher potential for a really epic story. Understandably time and budget constraints necessarily cut these leads short. There were also some twists and bends in revealing the story that helped make this film stand apart from the typical plot formulas but not so far out as to take away from the film as a whole. The creature effects were creative and played into an insect (lets face it insects are creepy) like caricature of the Babadook emphasized through various scenes throughout and helped build the creature as a character in itself alongside the main characters.
When this comes out for Blue Ray or DVD it will be making my personal collection.
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Sincerely,
Evil von Scary